Austin, TX, November 29, 2022—The Texan recently visited three homeless camps in Austin, each in the depths of the city’s forests. Read about that here.
Below is a collection of photos taken during that tour.
A mailbox marks the beginning of a campsite in the forest behind the Fiesta Grocery store off South I-35. (The Texan/Brad Johnson)Glasses rest in the mailbox. (The Texan/Brad Johnson)The door to a walled-in campsite lies open. (The Texan/Brad Johnson)Trash is compiled in one campsite at which some semblance of order exists. (The Texan/Brad Johnson)A clock sits among the garbage in an abandoned campsite. (The Texan/Brad Johnson)A responsibility chart hangs in an abandoned campsite. (The Texan/Brad Johnson)Campers created a cart-pulley system they use to move objects up and down the steep hill. (The Texan/Brad Johnson)Campers fashion stairs out of wooden pallets. (The Texan/Brad Johnson)An occupied campsite sits within a wooded enclave. (The Texan/Brad Johnson)A mattress hangs off the incline of a creek bed.(The Texan/Brad Johnson)Burned pallets mark the spot where a recent fire occurred caused by an exploding propane tank. (The Texan/Brad Johnson)A charred tree sits at the spot where the fire occurred. (The Texan/Brad Johnson)An abandoned campsite is left just yards away from the spot of a previous fire.(The Texan/Brad Johnson)A campsite’s generator sits in the middle of the boundaries. (The Texan/Brad Johnson)Debris is strewn throughout the forest outside of an encampment. (The Texan/Brad Johnson)A van is tucked away among the trees adjacent to one of the homeless camps. (The Texan/Brad Johnson)A mirror is crushed at an abandoned campsite. (The Texan/Brad Johnson)At an abandoned campsite, a propane tank is left among the debris. (The Texan/Brad Johnson)A homeless man has been camping under the overpass but has left his dwelling for a cold weather shelter. (The Texan/Brad Johnson)The makeshift fireplace of the overpass dwelling rests abandoned with sticks and ashes strewn about. (The Texan/Brad Johnson)The sight of a campsite cleared out by the city in July, leaving shredded garbage strewn everywhere. (The Texan/Brad Johnson)A lonely shoe is among the piles of garbage covering the forest floor. (The Texan/Brad Johnson)Shopping carts are everywhere in campsites, and these have been crushed by machines used by the city. (The Texan/Brad Johnson)An empty bottle of liquor marks the entrance of the campsite. (The Texan/Brad Johnson)Miscellaneous garbage is dumped on the forest floor. (The Texan/Brad Johnson)A homeless man named Ramey has constructed his own elaborate campsite. (The Texan/Brad Johnson)Ramey, suffering from serious mental illness, has used a chainsaw to cut trees in the area down and tied others up. (The Texan/Brad Johnson)
All throughout his campsite are dozens of stone crosses, each made by Ramey. (The Texan/Brad Johnson)
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Brad Johnson is a senior reporter for The Texan and an Ohio native who graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 2017. He is an avid sports fan who most enjoys watching his favorite teams continue their title drought throughout his cognizant lifetime. In his free time, you may find Brad quoting Monty Python productions and trying to calculate the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow.
